LOUISVILLE – Former Tri-Village women’s basketball player Meghan Downing is in her senior season playing college basketball at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). The Buccaneers was one of four teams playing in a 3-day Louisville MTE tournament with two games at the KFC Yum Center and one at Bellarmine. East Tennessee State University would finish in second place with a 2-1 record.
The four teams competing were ETSU, Bellarmine, Eastern Illinois and Louisivlle. ETSU two wins came Friday 55-49 over Bellarmine and on Sunday 60-54 over Eastern Illinois. The Buccaneers would fall 88-50 to the #23 ranked Cardinals on Saturday, with the Cardinals winning the tournament.
In ETSU’s first game Friday night verses Bellarmine, Meghan Downing scored 14 points, had 4 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. On Saturday in just 17 minutes of play verses Louisville, Downing had 4 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assist and on Sunday verses Eastern Illinois she had 6 points, 3 rebound and one blocked shot.
Downing came into the tournament needing 5 blocked shots to break the school career block record and would get that against Louisville on Saturday.
ETSU kept the game tight early with the Cardinals with Meghan Downing draining two free throws to tie the game at 12. However, the highlight of the first quarter came right after those free throws when Meghan swatted 6’4” Louisville center Elif Istanbulluoglu’s shot then recovered the ball to set up a fast break that would give the Buccs a 14-12 lead.
Meghan’s block broke the career record of 129 with her 130th and with much of the season yet to be played, you can expect she will be adding to that career tally.
Downing already owned the single season record for blocks last year with 70, despite missing a couple of games to start the year due to an injury and has 14 so far this year.
In the game with Eastern Illinois on Sunday Downing would get into some foul trouble but would still come up big when the team needed her late in the game. With the Bucs leading 50-48, the Panthers 6’10” redshirt sophomore center Abbie Boutilier would block Meghan’s shot, and they would go down to the other end and tie the score at 50-50 with Boutilier going over the top of downing for the tip-in.
Rather than get down on herself Downing would make up for it moments later by popping outside of the lane to the elbow avoiding going at the big center knocking down a 15’ jumper to give the Bucs a 54-50 lead with 1:25 to go in the game.
Then with the score 58-54 Eastern Illinois was forced to foul Meghan who calmly drained both free throws to remain perfect on the season at the charity stripe going 12-for-12 thus far and providing the final points to secure the win for ETSU.
I caught up with Meghan to talk about the weekend tournament and her overall experience playing for the DI school in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Meghan is the youngest of three daughters of Scott and Rachelle Downing who owns and operates historical Downing Fruit Farm in New Madison. All three Downing girls: Allie, Maddie and Meghan were standout players at Tri-Village and all three played college basketball. Not only is that impressive coming from a small school … but even more impressive coming from one family.
Allie Downing was a 2017 TV graduate who played 4 years at Belmont Abbey where she scored 1515 career points. She would go on to play one more year at Division 1 Northern Colorado.
Maddie Downing was a 2020 TV graduate and led the Patriots to 25-2 record that year. She would play for two year at the University of Northwestern Ohio.
And of course, Meghan Downing who was a 2022 TV grad is putting together an impressive career at ETSU.
Her mom and dad, sisters all made the road trip to take in the 3-day tournament.
Meghan took the time to express how important it has been to get so much support from her family.
It’s great to look up and see them here. I love it. They definitely mean so much to me. That’s why I do it … I do it for them we all have such a tremendous bond through the game of basketball,” Meghan stated.
Meghan talked a bit about here progression at ETSU to where she is right now.
“My freshman year, I had three post players ahead of me, and that was a pretty rough year at the beginning, and I was just like trying to work hard to get into things, and then I got hurt. I actually tore my hip labrum. But I played through it, then had to get hip surgery after the season, so that was tough,” Meghan explained.
“Then going into my sophomore year, I was second string post and played like 10 minutes a game – background minutes. Then going into conference play I stepped up my play, and I feel like that was kind of when my breakout started to happen,” Meghan added.
“Going into my junior year, I had a lot of momentum and felt like I had a really good year, not necessarily just scoring, but in all aspects on the court, like blocking, defense and things like that,” Downing said.
This year I want to be that senior leader who helps lead my team to a good year and a team championship,” Downing expounded.
All the things Meghan talked about would be on display in the game against Louisville where the Buccanneers play a four out one in guard-oriented offense.
Downing would do a lot of the little things well that don’t get noticed by helping break the press, then setting screens in the half court and helping create mismatches or lanes for the guards.
Downing’s basketball IQ helps her see things to be in the right spots or direct others to those spots as well and she talked about that aspect of the game.
“I think that in a way, I kind of have a point guards mindset when it comes to offense and considering I’ve been here the longest with our Head Coach (Brenda Mock Brown) … I really know her offense, I know what she wants. So, I feel good leading people on the court and getting us into our offense and my senior confidence has really gotten a lot better and I’m just not afraid to step up and help our team any way I can.
The proof of her helping her team would come before the season started as Meghan was mentioned as a pre-season all-conference player and defensive player of the year candidate. ETSU plays in the Southern Conference comprised of Chattanooga, UNC Greensboro, East Tennessee State University, Wofford, Furman, Samford, Western Carolina and Mercer.
Meghan, not one to talk so much about stats has helped her team immensely rebounding and with her defense.
Here ability to block shots was something we all got to witness in our area when she was in high school and is now helping her standout on defense at ETSU. Meghan had 138 blocked shots her senior year which placed her 12th in the state of Ohio All-Time for a single season and 318 for her career also placing her in the top echelon at the state level.
I asked Meghan what makes her such a good defender and the ability to block shots … her response was no surprise as she mentioned effort.
“It’s more about working hard, giving that extra effort to try and be in the right position to be able to get them,” Downing said.
That was evident not only on her record-breaking block against Louisville where she fought through a double screen to erase the shot. That effort also was the reason she got half of her 8 rebounds because she never settled for being boxed out and just outworked them to go get the ball.
“I know I’m undersized playing post going against girls 6’5, 6’6” so I definitely just need to be smart, like it’s one of my favorite parts of the game, blocking shots … but my ultimate goal is helping my team win a conference championship this year,” Meghan concluded.
And in some cases, she had to go against a 6’10” center in Eastern Illinois and found a way when it mattered to make the play her team needed.
If effort, toughness, selflessness and doing all the little things showed up in the stat book, Meghan would lead the way. From swatting a ranked team’s center to sealing a win at the line, Downing’s weekend was a masterclass in doing whatever the moment needed.
The record is proof of what she’s done. The poise is a promise of what’s still to come the bigger goal—a conference title—still beckons, and she’s leading the way there, time will tell and if I was a betting man, my money would be on Meghan to deliver.
